Monika Stefaniak
Conductor, music theoretician, pedagogue, cultural manager
She’s been studied under the guidance of such outstanding conductors as: Sir Colin Davis, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Eötvös, Leonid Korchmar, Gabriel Chmura and her main mentor and teacher prof. Jerzy Salwarowski. She is finalist and laureate of the audience award in International Conducting Competition in Chisinau (2011) and finalist of Ionel Perlea International Conducting Competition in Slobozia (2021). She was accepted to participate in other prestigious competitions in Besancon, London, Trento, Taipei.
She performed with Congress Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Catania Festival Orchestra, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonic and Opera Society in Plovdiv, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Toruń and Słupsk chamber orchestras, Baltic State Opera in Gdańsk National Symphonic Orchestra of Polish Radio and philharmonic orchestras in Częstochowa, Kalisz and Szczecin. She conducted Sinfonia Varsovia and Beethoven Academy Orchestra. From 2016 she cooperate with Ars Nova early instruments ensemble with which she performed during prestigious 30th Festival „Warsaw Music Encounters“.
She gained the Doctorate in Conducting from Academy of Music in Kraków. In 2008 she became a member of Conducting Faculty in Poznań Music Academy for 8 years where she lectured at composition, conducting, theory of music and rhythmics, the instrumental and the vocal faculties. She’ve been a conductor-assistant in Baltic State Opera in Gdańsk for two seasons conducting rehersals with orchestra, choir, soloists and ballet in premieres of Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi Rigoletto and La Traviata, Rossini Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rimsky-Korsakov Mozart i Salieri, Puccini La Boheme and Madama Butterfly, Adam Giselle, Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker and Stanisław Moniuszko Straszny dwór. She conducted also the performances of Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro and Moniuszko Nie taki straszny dwór (education performance).
She’ve won the Ministry of Culture of the Polish Government scholarship for outstanding artists of the young generation “Młoda Polska”. She’ve got also the Italian Government scholarship to take part in prestige masterclass “Accademia Musicale Chigiana” in Siena with Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti. She took part in conducting courses: in Moncalvo Italy (XI Corso di Direzione d’Orchestra with contemporary music ensemble “Divertimento Ensemble”) and three times in Szombathely Hungary as part of the Bartok Festival with Maestros Zoltán Peskó, Zsolt Hamar and Peter Eӧtvӧs (B. Bartok – Bluebeard’s Castle). She participated in courses in St. Petersburg, Częstochowa, Poznań, Katowice working with Jerzy Salwarowski, Paul Elliot Cobbs and Gabriel Chmura and also in the Internationale Bachakademie with Helmut Rilling in Kraków as well as in Dresden with Sir Colin Davis.
She is co-author of the book “Technika dyrygowania w aspekcie różnic stylistycznych” (Conducting technique in the aspect of stylistic differences) published by Poznań Music Academy in 2015. She participates in national and international scientific conferences (“Conductor - educator. Based on Henryk Czyż’s television series “Nie taki diabeł straszny”, “The devil’s not so black” - Oxford Conducting Institute, Conducting Studies Conference 24-26.06.2016; “Bohdan Wodiczko – dyrygent współczesności”, UMFC Warszawa 10.12.2016)
